Author Archives: Peter Levine

the release of Civic Mission of Schools

Today was finally the big release of The

Civic Mission of Schools. (I can finally link to the text of this

report, which had been embargoed until today.) John Bridgeland, Advisor

to the President and Director of USA Freedom Corps, made a very nice speech

in formally "receiving" it for the press. About 150 people were

present for the lunch/launch, including Vartan Gregorian, who spoke eloquently,

and many authors and endorsers (and friends in the civic engagement world).

I thought it went very well—at any rate, I’m relieved that it’s done.

why apply for the Rhodes?

I tried to talk one of Maryland’s Rhodes Scholarship applicants from

last year into reapplying, because he came within a whisker of winning.

Since he’s primarily a scientist, it’s not necessarily in his interest

to go to Oxford. But he’s also something of an activist for deaf culture,

and the Rhodes could open doors for him later if he wanted to continue

advocacy work.

journalism and political theory

Most of my time is spent planning for the launch of our report on k-12

civic education, The Civic Mission of Schools. At a press conference

on Thursday, it will be "received" by John Bridgeland, Advisor

to the President and Director of USA Freedom Corps, in the presence of

the presidents of The Pew Charitable Trusts and Carnegie Corporation of

New York, and others. So there are millions of practical details to attend

to.

Meanwhile, my colleagues and I filed an interim report with the Kettering

Foundation, describing our progress on a project involving journalism

and political theory. We’re trying to figure out how each discipline

might learn from and benefit the other. As an experiment, two graduate

students (under the direction of a philosophy professor and a journalism

professor) are creating a Website presenting ideas from political theory

in a format useful to working journalists. The idea is to learn what kind

of philosophy would be practically relevant—and what journalists

should learn from philosophers. The students have decided to focus the

Website itself on war and democratic theory. The central issues to be

addressed are (1) the uneasy relationship between national security and

civil liberties in a democratic society; (2) freedom of information, and

especially press access to information in time of war; and (3) the implications

of a professional military for the health of a democracy.

Cesar Chavez school

My day began with a nice breakfast at a fancy downtown hotel, talking

to a foundation program officer about a project that he is planning. I

camped out in the lobby to do some work, and then Metro’d to the Cesar

Chavez Charter High School for Public Policy. It seems like fun to go

there. Two hundred kids are tightly packed into improvised classrooms

in a former office building. There’s a sense that they are helping to

create something idiosyncratic and important. Students participate heavily

in planning the service projects that are central to the curriculum, so

their voice matters. At the same time, discipline is strict: if you arrive

one second late, you go straight to detention. As we walked through the

halls, the principal had something specific to say to practically every

kid she met: "We set up SAT classes for you. Oh, you can’t do them

because you’re in the Corcoran art program. OK, we’ll figure out an alternative."

The neighborhood, near U Street, is full of charter schools—I suspect

because the rent is fairly low and Metro connections are good. It’s a

transitional neighborhood, traditionally African American and working

class, but now with quite a few White yuppies. I was thinking about the

problems and advantages of gentrification when I passed workers restoring

a beautiful row house. Outside the next-door house, an African American

woman stood and shouted at them: "White man already has everything!"

As an illustration, it was too perfect.